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Category: Illustration

Step 1:Pop Art Vector
To start out our pop art vector tutorial, we will start from a line drawing of the face in close up. This line drawing could be with simple strokes, nothing too complicated.

Next, we’ll create the shadows with objects filled with solid black. Use the Pen Tool (P) to draw the objects and try to give volume and movement to the illustration. Take a special look at how we drew the hair strokes and the shadow under the chin.

Step 2
Choose the colors you’d like to use in your pop art vector illustrations. I chose the typical colors used in pop art illustrations to make a more obvious effect, but you can choose the colors that better represent your photo (if you made the drawing from a photo) or illustration.

Step 3
Next, we’ll create the swatches for the dots background of the objects.

We need the grid guideline to make the dots swatch for every color. Reveal the grid by going to View > Show Grid. Make sure you have “Snap to Grid” enable. Go to View > Snap Grid to check if it’s enabled. If it has a check mark next to it, it’s enabled. If it doesn’t, click to enable.

Draw two circles with the Ellipse Tool (L). Hold the Shift key while drawing the ellipse to constrain the proportions and create the circle. The space between the circles would determine the predominant color in the swatch. The closer the circles are, the more predominant the circle’s color would be the background color. Also, the more space the dots have, the more noticeable they would be to the human eye. In this tutorial, I’d like them to be pretty noticeable.

Step 4
Now duplicate the two circles and rotate them 90 degrees using the Rotate Tool (R). Click and hold the Shift key to rotate in increments of 45 degrees. Next, draw a square with the Rectangle Tool (M) where each side goes through the circles’ center point.

Step 5
Duplicate four times each set of square + dots, one for each color that our illustration has. Now fill each set of circles with the colors of our illustration. Finally, fill the square with white. Now we are ready to create the swatches from this elements! Select the first square with the circles inside and go to Edit > Define Pattern. Name your swatch if you’d like, and click OK to create the swatch. Repeat the process for the other colors. You’ll see the new swatches available in the Swatches Panel.

Step 6
Replace the colors of the objects in our illustration with the new swatches. Select each object and click on the corresponding swatch in the Swatch Panel. Definitely starting to look like a pop art vector!

If you are unhappy with the way any of the swatches look as patterns in your illustration, you can play with the background color to create other tones.

Step 7
Now we are going to take care of the strokes used to give expression to the face. This is single strokes with no fill. There are some for the nose profile, cheeks, forehead, etc. Open the brushes panel (Window > Brushes) and click on the top right icon to reveal its menu. Select Open Brush Library > Artistic > Artistic_Ink.

A new panel will appear. Now select one of the strokes and click on the bottom brush named “Tapered Stroke” in the panel we just opened. Do the same with the rest of the strokes. I applied the brush to all of my elements in the illustration to have the edges between them perfectly aligned.

Step 8
If the brush for the expression lines is too wide or too thin (depends on the size of your illustration), you can adjust the brush width. Go to the brush panel where you’ll find the brush you use for the expression lines. When you select a brush in any of the brush library panels, it’s added automatically to the main Brush Panel. Double click on the brush and in the Width slider, move the arrow to the left to make the stroke thinner or to the right to make them wider. Click OK when you’re finished.

Perhaps you are trying to figure out what kind of career is best for you in the future, or maybe you even are looking for a career change in your life. If so, one very fun and stimulating field to consider is the arts. A career in the arts can be very exciting and there are many different career choices to consider within the field. If you find yourself enjoying and excelling in artistic pursuits such as painting, drawing, or even photography, then it may be time to explore what this career field can offer you. Before you make a career decision, it is usually a great idea to take a closer look at the field you are considering, so make sure that you fully explore what a career in the arts has to offer you. Exciting Careers (painter, illustrator, photography, animation, art historian, art director)

Within the field of the arts, there are many different careers that you can consider, depending on where your interests and abilities lie. If you are interested in this field and you enjoy history, you may want to consider a career as an art historian. This is a great career for those who love the arts but are not interested in actually producing the artwork themselves. Art historians have many different options available, including teaching and research.

Another great career in this field is an illustrator. Whether you enjoy drawing comic characters, or more serious and advanced illustrations, there are great careers available in this field. Illustrating comic books or children’s books is a great choice, and for those who prefer the more serious side, illustrating text books and medical books is a very lucrative option as well.

Some people who enjoy expressing themselves on canvass may find that a job as a painter is a great idea for them. Whether you display your art in galleries, paint by commission, or teach painting at a local college, this is a great career choice. Some other careers in the art industry include working in animation, photography, and as an art director.

Preparing for the Arts

The type of preparation that you will need for a career in the arts is highly dependent on which specific career you decide to pursue. As a general rule, most careers in the arts will require that you have a bachelors degree if you want to be successful. While some art careers such as woodworking, glass working, and quilting do not require such a degree, it is usually not as easy to fully support yourself in art without a degree. If you intend to teach in the art field, then you will not only need a bachelor’s degree, but you will also need your teaching certificate. For those interesting in fine arts such as painting or drawing, there are various art schools that basically have a studio environment that will offer instruction and the opportunity to develop your skills.

Money Matters

Most people want to know what the money making potential is before they enter a specific field. In the arts industry, the salary you make will depend on your specific job and the company that you are working for as well. Art directors are some of the higher paid workers in this field, and they generally earn between $40,000 and $100,000 per year, depending on company and their experience. On the low end of the spectrum, craft artists such as glass workers and wood workers usually make between $20,000-$30,000 each year. Fine artists such as painters, illustrators, and sculptors usually can expect to make between $25,000 and $40,000 a year. Many people involved in the arts are self-employed, in fact better than 50% are self-employed. Those who are self-employed can have varying salaries depending on their specific field, and their success as an artist.

Excellent Employers

While many artists are self-employed, there are others who work for established companies as well. While self employment has many advantages, working for a company often provides a better salary and great benefits. Some of the best companies to work for in the United States include Walt Disney, Personal Preference Inc., and the New Museum for Contemporary Art. There are great companies available in Canada as well, which include Canada Council for the Arts, the Emily Carr Institute of Art, and Organic Inc. These are just a few of the great employers in the arts, so be sure to explore your options, and look for companies that offer excellent benefits and a great salary.

Illustration in simple terms is the rendition of any idea, concept, or written content in the form of art. These days, the importance of illustrations as well as 3D illustrations is highly regarded by publishers and editors, wanting to publish their contents on the internet space or magazines. Since good illustrations can grab attention quickly and can get deeply rooted in the minds of people, more and more writers today are opting illustrated art to complement their writings.

The use of illustrations is extensive in books for children since elaborate illustrations that accompany the writing, stories, and poems are interesting and can make a huge positive impact on the children. Although, it is crucial for the illustrations to be of the highest quality and accuracy in order to provide a positive impact to the written contents. If the below standard illustrated arts are accompanied with the written contents, it will not procure the results that are expected. A perfect illustrated art, which can easily convey the right idea in the clearest manner, is the most vital aspect of any illustration. With the various forms of art, including sketches and drawings, an illustrator can enrich the concept of any piece of writing, whether be it a depiction of a story for children’s book or a representation of a theory for physics or science writing.

The most notable aspect of an illustrated art is that it can elucidate any written content in a drawing or two. The readers can have a good understanding of the context and they will not even have to go through the entire texts. 3D illustrations can play a big role in marketing and promoting products for various companies. Skilled illustrators will create 3D images of the products, which indeed can capture the attention of a mass audience. The viewers will be enthralled by an illustrated art more than any written contents. Besides, these days’ people are very impatient reading the adverts; hence, a good 3D illustration will help convey all about the product and its features in a form of art to those impatient audiences. An illustrator with good skills and experience knows how to make a photorealistic image and at the same time keep it accurate and simple to understand.

The traces of illustrations as old as prehistoric cave paintings; however, still in this modern world, they play a crucial part. They make people understand what is rather difficult to understand. They clarify and simplify concepts what are otherwise complex in nature.

What do you know about illustration designs? For most commercial artists, it exhibits a specific value which brings them to the satisfaction of higher level of sovereignty to express them. Dissimilar to designers who create logos and relative figures, the illustration designers receive the repeated anticipation that they will be able to make a vigorous and character-driven design incorporated with traits and frequently an incorporation of humor.

In the midst of the existing numerous companies that are maximizing the application of clip art as well as the other downloadable illustrations, the illustration designers frequently perform as freelancers or self-determining contractors more willingly than those corporate workers. Based on the BLS, around two-thirds of the entire artists perform as freelancers. Searching for work normally rely on the skill of the illustrator, his networking skills and contacts. Artists who have the potential in executing digital graphic design are particularly in need. The moment they are hired, the illustration designers maximize their aptitudes to make illustrations which stand for particular ideas.

Normally, artists who drift down toward the scheme of illustration design attend to academic schooling concentrating in arts regardless if they do not have the college degree. Different universities, colleges, technical schools, and art academies are offering coursework in drawing, illustration, digital art, sketching, design and animation. Somehow, for no degree artists, a collection enclosing their superior work is vital in achieving a job either being a freelancers or an employee.

Illustration design is somehow associated to commercial arts made for particular industries. Numerous designers concentrate and identify constant execution in such turf as the following:

Illustration designs are efficient means of communication as it express a message and stand for a notion by illustrating designs like the creation of photograph for character, cartoon, or mascot, and drawing are extensively recognized by the advertisers, corporate, and publishers nowadays. Certain inventive designers and artists can form an impression by painting, creating photographs, or drawing. Envisioning something while forming a structure in an imaginative method is known to be an illustration design. A poem, information, or story can be relayed or demonstrated through which both the object and the subject tap the mind of the people much more ideal than other existing forms. Specific skilled cartoon artists can customize cartoons as well as designing services for cartoon logos. Gaining the artistic illustration becomes an easy undertaking because the inventive artists are present to assist us.

Regardless if you intend to use the illustration for web medium or printing, this will capture attention of guests and paste them on the page and are somehow persuaded to read on. In the event that you intend to use the illustration for online functions, the excellence and significance leads the online visitors to stay and browse the website. For so many instances, digital graphic designs have efficiently achieved the overpowering prerequisites of graphic designing schemes.

Illustration – The Concept

An illustration is a visualization stressing more on form than on the subject. It can be a drawing, sketch, photograph, or painting. It aims to elucidate & highlight the subject, while aiding a better understanding of the textual information for a viewer or reader. The principle advantages of illustration are:
o Gives a face and a unique identity to the characters in a script
o Shows the examples of the subject in more than one form
o Clarifies and enhances the meaning of the text
o Helps understand difficult concepts by relating to pictures and images
o Can be used to depict step-wise instructions in a pictorial manner
o Helps understand the themes of the text at a glance

The History

The first instances of illustrations date back to the age of prehistoric cave paintings, depicting the then lifestyle. These pictorial representations are very informative, particularly because no script existed in those days. The early 8th century wooden handcrafted illustrations have been found in Japan and China. From the 15th century onwards, books on engraving, etching, and wood designing were available. The 18th century saw further development in the field due to the birth of lithography. The ‘golden age’ of illustration lasted from the late 18th century until shortly after World War I (1914-18).

The Types

o Technical Illustration – As the name suggests, it is used to convey technical information visually. It enables even a non-technical audience to understand the basic technicality of a concept. Usually in the form of technical drawings and diagrams, these illustrations are accurate in their dimensions and proportions.
o Illustration Art – There is a surge in the illustration arena, due to the increased consumption in the media vehicles, such as magazines, music covers, and billboards to mention some. A meteoric rise in the popularity of video games and comics is especially a great booster to the field, in the countries like USA, China, Korea, and Hong Kong. Various art galleries and museums too display the interesting illustrative pieces.

The Artists

While, the English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake (1757-1827) emerged as a pioneer of this epoch with his relief etching, Honore Daumier (1808-79) was an immense contributor from France. England particularly had potential illustrators, who helped evolve the field, such as George Cruikshank (1792-1878), Hablot Knight Browne (1815-82), and John Leech (1817-64). Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914), the Dalziel Brothers [George Dalziel (1815-1902) & Edward Dalziel (1817-1905)], and Georges du Maurier (1834-96) gracefully ushered illustrations in the nineteenth century. Santiago Martinez Delgado (1906-54) and Arthur Wragg (1903-76) gave the field its identity in the twentieth century.

Fantasy art, where Dragons and Orcs roam forgotten lands have been with us since well before Tolkien introduced us to Bilbo Baggins the hobbit. Aliens in all shapes and sizes were roaming our imagination long before Giger introduced his Alien into our nightmares, but recent years have seen fantasy and science fiction art be accepted in main stream society and no film that falls into this category can be a success today without the visual special effects, art and imagination that some of most talented fantasy artist can bring us today.

With the growth of the internet, along with the explosion in the games industry, both off and online, and more instructional art books being published by companies like Impact books, fantasy art has been propelled to main stream acceptance and evolved into many new forms, but all rooted in imagination and artistic talent. I only have to think how far things have come when I think back to when I stood in the rain to queue and see the original Star Wars film.

Technology has moved on and the fantasy art I knew as a student has been brought to life in an age of technology that, like the fantasy art subject matter, seems to have no limits.

As a student and budding artist, fantasy art was very much a specialist avenue to take and many a lecturer would dismiss such art / illustration as a waste of time.

Today we see fantasy art in all walks of our daily life. From online games where you fight aliens a billion miles from home to the latest home appliances advertised by the Star Wars icons C3PO and R2DT. All started as ideas, art and a passionate artist drawing and designing the things of imagination.

Online galleries show us the new and established fantasy artists and the work they have created. Films like Avatar have become breathtaking in their appearance due to fantasy artists / designers who’s wealth of imagination have no limits and games like the new Dead Space can propel you to another world while sitting in your armchair. These and many more started as ideas, drawings and artwork with fantasy artist and authors.

Like the fantasy artwork which has no limits it seems that the growth of fantasy art has itself, no limits, as fantasy films get more spectacular, games get more imaginative and publishing by artists and writers becomes more widespread with the continued growth of the internet.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to hire an illustrator, here are a handful of tips than can help you with the process. Aside from the style and quality of an artist’s work, the most important factors when looking for an illustrator are professionalism, dependability and getting the job done right within the time given. Contrary to popular belief, most of us are a pleasure to work with and don’t bite. With that in mind, here’s a simple step-by-step guideline:

1. Research. Before contacting an illustrator, take some time to study the portfolio of the artist you have in mind. Make sure the style, technique and creative vision you are looking for is represented in their work. Look beyond the subject matter of the images. For instance, if you are looking for an artist who paints fun animals but you don’t see examples in their book, ask the artist if there are any examples they can send you. Another thing to consider is the digital format of the final artwork, vector or bit-map, which can be crucial in determining the usage of the image (more on that later). If the illustrator has more than one style, make a note of specific images from their portfolio as style samples to refer to.

2. Contact. Once you have contacted the illustrator of your choice, exchange information such as your name, company name, contact info, client info and project description. The more information you can provide the better, especially if it involves winning lottery numbers.

3. Describe Project. A detailed description should include: specific art direction, usage, deadlines and last but not least…money. These items are explained in detail as follows:

A. Art Direction. Describe in detail, what type of imagery you are looking for, how many illustrations you will need created and what the size dimensions for each will be. It would be great to supply any layouts, comps and reference materials at this time. Also, as mentioned earlier, if the illustrator has more than one style, specify which particular image or images from their portfolio you have in mind as examples. Giving as much information as you can up front will paint a more clear picture of what you need done for your project…pardon the pun, I couldn’t help myself.

B. Usage. The ways an image will be used are a big part in calculating how much a project can cost. Disclosing how frequently the images will be used, how long they will be used for, where they will be displayed, whether on the web, in print, or some other medium and the geographical range of the usage will help determine a price for the project. Another factor in usage is copyright ownership. Who will own copyright of the final image? Asking for exclusive rights for an image will result in a higher fee than rights for a limited time. Any rights not transferred in writing are retained by the artist.

C. Deadlines. A time line should clearly be spelled out from the beginning with milestones set for each phase of the project from when the first round of sketches are due to when the final art has to be completed and delivered. It is a good idea to work out how much time will be needed for everyone involved, to review each stage of the process and get back to the illustrator with comments in a reasonable time. Give ample time for revisions to meet the project’s needs before giving approval to proceed to final art. Keep in mind most illustrators will include minor changes and or color tweaks to the final art, but any alterations to the final art, that are different to what was approved in the pencil stage, will usually result in a separate fee which will be determined by the extent of the change. There’s nothing more frustrating (unless you are a Washington Redskin fan) than having a revision request coming out of left field after the art is complete…that is good stuff for primal scream therapy…seriously.

D. Money. When setting a budget for an illustration project, consider all the factors involved. The complexity of the work, time given to complete the assignment in a skilled and professional manner and usage of the final art. Payment terms should be worked out at this point whether they are scheduled throughout the project or paid in one lump sum when the final art is delivered. Getting a payment schedule worked out beforehand will eliminate any confusion or have you running in the streets screaming into the night once the project has started.

4. Format. As mentioned briefly earlier, file format can be crucial depending on how you plan to use the image. In today’s world, most illustrations created are done digitally and those done traditionally are digitally scanned. Digital file formats and file resolution requirements should be stated in the beginning to avoid any confusion. Images that will be used in various sizes and media applications may work better created in a resolution free, vector format such as Adobe Illustrator. Images created in a resolution dependent, bit-map format can still be used in various sizes and media applications as long as the resolution and size is worked out beforehand. In my professional opinion, bit-map programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw using a digital drawing tablet, can offer a wider range of styles and techniques in digital artwork than a vector program. Finally, how you want the final file delivered should be specified whether it be via email, disk, ftp site or other types of file transfer.

There you go. A painless step-by-step process in hiring an illustrator and living to tell about it. There are more factors that I could go into more detail about but that will have to wait until next time. Until then, pick up the phone and call an illustrator…we don’t bite…really!

About The Author. Fian Arroyo has been creating award-winning illustrations and character design for his clients in the advertising, editorial and publishing markets for over 20 years. What at first began as something to do until he found out what he wanted to be when he grew up, has blossomed into a full-time detour from getting a “real job.” His fun, colorfully vibrant and conceptually clear illustrations have kept his work apart from being just another pretty picture. The quality of his art and the fact that he works at the speed of light getting his projects done on-time have kept him in demand and pretty busy.

Too busy in fact, to pursue his true ambition…conquering the world with his Legions of Doom and acquiring total global domination. Well he doesn’t have any Legions of Doom, but he would have if he weren’t too busy drawing and being held hostage by his wife, kids, pets and a mortgage.

Digital illustration is big business these days. A quick look at roadside billboards, club flyers or magazine covers should be enough to convince anyone that the art of the digital designer has never been in higher demand, and its popularity just keeps on growing.

But defining exactly what digital illustration is proves tricky. We all know what the words mean, yet the myriad of ways in which illustration can be applied makes it one of the most versatile of the creative arts and as such, it’s pretty difficult to pin down.

With a strong creative vision and the right software, concepts can be articulated in limitless ways; each style opening new doors for expression. The one crucial skill that ties it all together is the need for some innate artistic ability. You don’t need to be a virtuoso with a pencil to be good at computer art, but there’s no doubt that most professional illustrators are proficient with traditional art techniques.

The basics of image structure are the same across mediums, after all, and with software increasingly able to mimic traditional drawing methods, the transition to digital has become almost seamless. Let’s take a closer look at the main branches of digital illustration and discover a little more about how the experts put them together.

Vector art

It’s no great accident that vector illustration is currently one of the trendiest and easily recognisable of the digital art disciplines. The signature flat colours and clean lines are easy to spot and quick to grab attention, which of course makes the style hugely popular with advertisers looking to catch the eye of potential consumers. In addition, their reduced colour palettes and scalable technology means they are perfect when it comes to artwork for the Web.

Created with precision by manipulating Bezier paths, the mechanics of vectors are based on mathematic principles that make them infinitely scalable without suffering degradation. This trait is extremely attractive to illustrators because it means images can be shrunk to a stamp or stretched to a billboard, without having to be redone. Paths are also easy to edit at a later stage, making vector images quick to tweak and rearrange if need be.

Vector shapes are often produced with photographs or hand drawn scans as templates, digitally tracing as much of the outline and detail as needed. Programs such as Flash can even create vectors automatically by tracing over photographic or pre sketched material, allowing picture elements to be created quickly and with little effort. However, the real artistry comes when choosing which elements to take to the digital image, and knowing how to colour and arrange the final illustration.

Keeping up to date is crucial and, since digital artists typically spend hours in front of a screen involved in their masterpieces, it’s all too easy to become isolated from what’s going on around you. Styles ace constantly changing and trends can come and go at great speed, so keeping your finger on the industry pulse is vital. Not only does it make good commercial sense, but it can also act as a rich muse from which to draw ideas

Mixing media

While vector art focuses on clean shapes, simple forms and bold chunks of colour, other digital illustration techniques take things in the opposite direction. Since the arrival of Photoshop in 1990, artists have been able to digitally manipulate photographic material and combine it with other visual ingredients, and when layers arrived with Photoshop 3.0 five years later, the stage was set for a new form of digital image. In 1995, digital photo illustration was born.

Based on the traditional method of using scissors and glue to cut and paste photos and artwork together in new arrangements, it’s a technique that has always been popular with children but has now become the favoured strategy of many an adult illustrator. This is primarily due to Photoshop’s specialised, yet accessible and intuitive, toolset, but also reflects the success the strategy can have when attempting to convey a complicated collection of ideas.

Sketching toons

While everyone knows that Photoshop is the king of detailed mixed media illustration, less well known is the fact that it’s also astonishingly good at producing line and comic style artwork. Deftly sidestepping the need to use intricate filters and effects, the hand drawn, hand coloured look is gaining favour with artists and art directors alike.

Because of the time saving tools that Photoshop offers, professional comic book artists are beginning to use the software to colour their hand drawn sketches and are taking digital art into previously unexplored areas. Using a mixture of both hand drawn and digital painting, new styles are surfacing that are making a massive impact on the established illustration industry.

Realer than real?

But for many artists, the Holy Grail of computer art is realism. Recent advances in graphics technology have enabled software developers to accurately simulate
real world drawing and painting tools by modelling how inks, chalks, oils and paints behave when they are applied to different surfaces. Using random particles to create natural looking strokes on simulated materials, you can now produce painted images that are all but indistinguishable from their hand made equivalents.

Since you can also grab a graphics tablet and paint directly onto your digital canvas, digital painting is less a description of an illustration style and more a literal possibility. As well as further mimicking the traditional within the digital arena, it’s also easy to pick up and get started. To this end, having some experience with real world painting is a definite advantage.

Because the technology behind natural media is so intricate, there are only a handful of programs that can actually achieve believable results. The most specialised is Corel Painter, which takes the possibilities to extremes by providing an array of simulated traditional drawing and painting tools. It even goes so far as to model the way that watercolour Paints behave when wet, with drips, runs and splashes. However, with some crafty brush creation and expert manipulation of layers, equally exciting effects can be replicated in your humble copy of Photoshop.

Pixel power

But although illustration software is advancing, it would be a mistake to think that the industry is focussing purely on pushing the undiscovered boundaries of digital imaging. In among the simulated paintings, clean vectors and intricate photo collages, a resurgence of old school pixel techniques is proudly celebrating the humble beginnings of computer art.

Pixel illustration is arguably where the whole digital illustration shebang began, back in the days when computer screens could only display a small number of colours at a low resolution. But, like so many limitations, this situation forced creativity and produced a unique style that’s now being snapped up in an industry that’s constantly on the lookout for something different.

Because low resolutions mean large pixel sizes, pixel art uses geometric rules that ensure perspectives are correctly maintained . A by product of this is the familiar isometric view that’s so common in this style of illustration, yet it does lend itself surprisingly well to conceptual art.

Pixel art continues to gain momentum, with increasing numbers of advertising and editorial commissioners looking to capitalise on its retro style designs. The bold use of colour and scrutinising detail also make it ideal for clients wishing to attract close attention and its popularity shows no signs of slowing.

The old saying “garbage in, garbage out” applies to reference photos for line art illustrations. If the quality of the reference photo isn’t very good, the artist is going to have trouble discerning the detail they need to make a high quality image. One of the earmarks of line illustration is sharp detail.

A good reference photo helps an artist see the detail they need to include, and enhance, in a line art illustration, but taking a good reference photo is not a simple matter of pointing and clicking. Here are some tips that will help you take good reference photos for line art illustration so you can streamline the process, save money, and produce better quality results.

Take plenty of photos.It’s better to have extra, than it is to have to go back and “do it again”. For larger subjects, such as a forklifts, zoom in and out on the various features while standing from the same spot. For smaller subjects, like a microwave oven, you won’t need to zoom in and out.

Get a variety of angles too, but keep in mind which angle you will ultimately want the illustration to represent. Get most of your shots from that angle. If, for example, you are shooting a power hand tool that will end up being illustrated in someone’s hand being used, try to get the angle right, and provide variations. Shoot a little high, a little low, a little left and a little right. Twist the angle, and shoot more. With digital photography, you don’t have to worry about film costs, so take a lot of shots.

Make sure you get the entire subject within the frame of the shot. Seems simple, but a lot of people don’t realize that they’ve cut off someone’s shoe, or hand, or something that extends from a piece of machinery.

Take close ups of key parts of larger products. For example, if you are taking a shot of a car and you want to make sure we get the hood ornament right, take a close up of it, so the artist has the detail they need. When taking close ups, make sure to take them from the same angle as the main photo. Either zoom in from where you are standing for the main shot, or simply step straight forward to get closer. Taking close up photos from alternative angles can help us understand the mechanical structure of a product – same-angled close-ups help streamline the illustration process and can save you money.

Lighting is the single most important factor that affects the quality of a photo. Studio lighting is the best. Sunlight is good, but creates harsh shadows that usually hide details. It is better to shoot in shade. Warehouse or office lighting tends to come from the ceiling, so if there are important details on the lower/under side of your product, think of ways to bring light in from the sides. Using portable floodlights, commonly used on construction sites and job shops, is a good way to bring light in from the sides.

Take shots with, and without, your flash turned on. The flash will add detail, but also create harsh shadows and highlights. If the subject has shiny parts, the flash can create hotspots that totally burn out detail.

Technical illustration may be chosen as your new career in freelancing. You are able to enhance details using certain web based technical illustration tools right from your homes. The other option is to buy the software and start improving your skills by creating more drawings as part of your portfolio. However, you face several challenges in skill building being a technical illustrator. One challenge is enhancing details and demonstrating certain particulars of an object or product more clearly than a photograph would. This means that a graphic digital designer may be allowed to certain aspects where a photographer and his or her camera cannot go. A digital illustrator can effectively present highly emotional, narrative, product detailed, or even fantasy based materials.

Depending on the medium, the style of the technical illustrator and the goal of the technical illustration may be drawn from a variety of looks. One may choose from using the super amazing revived art deco style, post modern look, highly personalized style, descriptive, or informational. Most illustrators usually demonstrate a more consistent personal style. It is therefore critical that a graphics designer should know which style suits his or her skills best. Magazine may be more on setting the tone and pique. The image or picture usually carries and reflects the whole story. In this case, layout must be integrated with the illustration in the least distraction. Newspapers normally used black and white spot art. As you search through the sections, you find different kinds of art such as fashion, product, or sports. For those artists whose passions are in political activism or concerning animal rights, the prints and drawings were made to influence people in order to bring desired change.

The best resource for your type of creativity or art is the medium that publishes a related niche. For example, a fashion illustration can be seen more in advertising. A fashion illustrator may hire a live model wearing clothes being advertised by the client. The communication of this concept is very challenging but interesting. How do you drive the interest of the consumers? You need to learn from magazine and clotheswear manufacturing companies. There are several websites with array of materials that could help communicate the message and nature of the organization. A highly creative piece would be a combination of drawing and photography. Greeting cards, medical, or technical illustration have different styles. You need to define your niche and then set a style. From there, you can start looking for related companies, books, magazines, or websites needing your art.